Despite beginning the season with a 1-4 record, the Miami Heat has performed admirably in emerging from their early-season slump. The Heat have quietly won three straight games to even the series at 4-4. For Miami, though, things aren’t getting any simpler. Tyler Herro left the game in the Heat’s victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night due to what seemed to be a serious ankle injury.
Shortly after the game, Herro admitted that the expectation is that he’s going to miss at least a couple of weeks with a sprained ankle. Considering how well Herro was playing through the first seven games of the season, this is not only a huge knock to Herro’s momentum individually but also to the team as a whole as they were beginning to play a bit better over the last few games.
Through the first seven games, Herro was the leading scorer for the Heat. He was averaging 25 points, six rebounds, and five assists per game on 45 percent shooting from the field and 41 percent shooting from 3-point range. In a lot of ways, he was the saving grace for an otherwise underwhelming offense.
The Miami Heat’s offensive struggles
Even with Herro, the Heat’s offense is currently far from outstanding. They are 27th in the NBA in terms of points per game and were among the worst five in the league for offensive rating. The Heat are sixth in the league in 3-point percentage, which is encouraging given their strong offensive performance in the first two weeks of the season.
Considering that’s a stat that plagued them last season, this is certainly a good sign. The problem is, the Heat isn’t taking enough 3’s for their efficiency from deep to have that big of an impact on their overall offensive numbers.
Losing 25 points per game is not going to be easy for the Heat to replace. Considering that Josh Richardson has left much to be desired in his return and the fact that Jimmy Butler hasn’t entirely looked like himself at this point in the season just yet, it’s no surprise why it’s easy to see why the Heat could be doomed by the Herro injury.
Eight of the Heat’s next nine games are on the road. With Herro out, we’re going to find a lot about the DNA of this team.
